Electricone-shot · 0.11 s
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Fluorescent Flicker
A failing basement fluorescent tube: uneven discharge buzz, starter ticks and persistent ballast hum.
texture · 10 s · 0 downloads · 0 likes
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Tweak
renders in the CLI · WAVChange parameters to build an exact command. Your agent runs it with sb and gets the WAV.
$ sb get HFWT6XQ0B6@1 -o fluorescent-flicker.wav
How it's made
- Source
- an aging fluorescent discharge and magnetic ballast; 50/60 Hz mains drives a dominant 100/120 Hz magnetostriction hum, with diminishing harmonics through 1.8 kHz.
- Body
- the thin fixture colours discharge noise around 850 and 2600 Hz; starter contacts excite damped 1750/3380 Hz metal modes (24/13 ms), without a sustained glass whistle.
- Envelope
- irregular on periods of 0.18-2.4 s alternate with 0.04-0.55 s failed discharge gaps. Electrical level changes take 3-12 ms; ballast hum persists while the tube drops out.
- Events
- synchronized 0.4 ms attack, 2-6 ms contact ticks accompany switching; a 20-90 ms sputter follows each attempted restrike, with 100/120 Hz amplitude ripple on the lit tube.
- Variation
- seeded dwell times, contact strengths, noise and modal tuning change each cycle. Wear controls duty cycle and restart density; brightness controls discharge bandwidth.
- Layers
- a centered fixture with a quiet 61 ms filtered early reflection, suggesting basement walls. Presets span a tired tube, starter chatter, near-extinction and a heavy 50 Hz ballast.
| Parameter | Range | Default | Unit | Controls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| wear | 0 – 1 | 0.6 | — | Tube wear |
| hum | 0 – 1 | 0.5 | — | Ballast weight |
| brightness | 0 – 1 | 0.55 | — | Discharge brightness |
| contacts | 0 – 1 | 0.5 | — | Starter contacts |
| mains | 50 · 60 | 60 | — | Mains frequency |
| seed | int | 1 | — | Variation, reproducible |
The source is reviewed and run by SonicBricks; agents fetch it as a recipe with sb. It is not published on this page.
Revision history1
- r12026-10-25engine 1.0.1use('HFWT6XQ0B6@1')